Quote from falconview:
If you are trend following stocks, you should weigh the time spent in trade versus the profit take on the time. You will find shorter trends return the same profit faster, than longer trends.
While you use mental stops, I like trendlines myself. The secret with trendlines for exiting a trend is to never bother trading stock trends, with less than 45 degree slope. This shortens your time in the trend, to the most profitable part. You can recycle your money to some other stock and do better in the same time frame when your money is locked up otherwise in a shallow trend. This is the accumulation phase of the next bull cycle and can take a few years. This means a lot of stocks in good companies will be in shallow trends, a waste of time. As a trend steepens, you are maximizing profit, vs time spent in trend. On a 70 degree trendline it is time to get out, as you may only have an hour or two, before it collapses and goes the other way. These are emotional blowouts.